Desktop Curtain is a simple utility, designed to help hide your cluttered desktop—it's ideal for developers, presenters, teachers, writers, and others who need an unfettered view of windows against a pristine background image (or color).
Features
With Desktop Curtain, you can:
Use the current desktop image as the curtain.
Specify images to be used via either drag-and-drop or a file browser.
Quickly select any of the 10 most-recently-used images.
Display the image on your main display, or on all your displays…and in one Space or all Spaces.
Position the cover image at any of three "levels" depending on your needs.
Use Desktop Curtain as a traditional (Dock icon) application, as a menu bar application, or as a completely invisible (faceless) application, which is perfect for taking screenshots.
All of these features are wrapped in an elegant and easy-to-use one-window interface, which is called the Desktop Curtain Settings window. There are only two tabs here—Curtain and Advanced.
Curtain Settings
The Curtain tab of Desktop Curtain is where you set most of Desktop Curtain's behaviors.
The Image Well
The image well area shows the currently-active image (if there is one), along with two floating buttons. You can drag-and-drop images from Finder into this well, or use the Choose button (see below) to pick images in different ways.
The leftmost 'x' button clears the currently-used image, which will cause the active color (shown in the button next to the 'x') to be used as a solid color backdrop. To change the active color, click on the oblong button next to the 'x', and the standard macOS color picker will appear. In addition to seeing this color after removing the image, it will also be visible if:
Your chosen image isn't set to fill your screen.
Your chosen image contains translucency.
The desktop curtain will also reflect the color you've chosen here, so changing the color of the curtain is as simple as clicking the oblong color-change button.
To save custom colors for re-use, simply drag them from the large box to the left of the magnifying glass in the color picker (which pops up when you click Desktop Curtain's oblong color picking button) to one of the small boxes at the right of the magnifying glass:
And yes, you can use the Opacity slider to create a translucent background color.
The Choose button
The Choose pop-up menu displays a menu (seen at right) with a number of options related to picking the image to use in Desktop Curtain.
Curtain reverts the image to Desktop Curtain's standard curtain image.
System Default chooses the default macOS desktop image.
Desktop Picture chooses the current desktop picture as the curtain image.
Open File… shows the standard file dialog, which you can use to pick an image (for those who prefer this method over a drag-and-drop into the image well).
The History section shows (in reverse usage order) up to 10 of your most-recently-used images, so you can easily flip between often-used images.
Hover over any thumbnail in the history list to see the filename of the image. You can also see the filename of the currently-used image by hovering over the main image well.
Clear History does just that; emptying out the list of used images, so you can start over fresh.
If you like the original green desktop curtain, you can get it back by holding the Option key when clicking the Choose button—when you do so, Curtain will turn into Classic Curtain. Note that the Classic Curtain is also color-change-capable, so if you want the original green tone back, you'll need to choose that tone in the color picker.
You may also notice that System Default changes into LSL Boss Key, in tribute to a classic adventure game. We'll leave it up to you to figure out which game that may be…
The Scale button
This pop-up menu controls how Desktop Curtain will scale your chosen image, assuming it doesn't exactly match the dimensions of the monitor(s) on which it will be seen.
Scale axes independently: The image will be resized both horizontally and vertically—changing each independently—until it fills the available space. This may lead to some image distortion, depending on the resolution of both the image and the monitor.
Scale proportionally: The image will be resized both horizontally and vertically, but while keeping the original image's aspect ratio. This prevents image distortion, but portions of the image may no longer be visible onscreen. (This is the default setting.)
Center: The image is centered onscreen, with no resizing of any kind. Images larger than the monitor's resolution will be cropped, and empty space around images smaller than the monitor's resolution will be filled with the chosen background color.
Tile: The image is repeated as often as necessary to fill the screen. If the image contains transparent areas, the chosen background color will be visible in those areas.
Curtain Level menu
This pop-up menu controls the "level" at which your chosen image or color is displayed.
Behind items on the Desktop makes Desktop Curtain act like a traditional desktop picture, by putting the image behind the desktop icons. In this way, you'll be able to see everything on your desktop, and the image will never cover anything.
Cover items on the Desktop will hide all your clutter with the curtain, but place all application windows on top of the curtain. (This is the default setting.)
Cover widgets places the curtain in front of your desktop clutter, as well as in front of any active desktop widgets.
Behind frontmost application will automatically place the curtain behind the frontmost application, giving you an easy way to focus 100% of your attention on that frontmost application. If you want to isolate just one window within an application, check out the Advanced Settings section for details on how to do just that.
Apply normal window ordering treats the curtain as any other application, making it easy to hide everything else below it. If you're looking to hide all the clutter, this mode is probably the most useful of the three.
Affected Displays menu
When set to All Displays, Desktop Curtain will affect all attached displays. When set to Main Display, it will only be visible on the display with the menu bar.
Affected Spaces
Due to restrictions in the Mac App Store, this feature is only available in the direct version of Desktop Curtain.
When set to All spaces, Desktop Curtain works in all Spaces (Desktops). If you have multiple Spaces (Desktops), you can select the current Space/Desktop by setting this pop-up to Space #n — Current Space on the Space/Desktop you wish to affect.
Mission Control
When set to Automatic, Desktop Curtain will determine the best course of action for its curtain when you invoke Mission Control. For example, with the curtain level set to "Apply normal window ordering," and Mission Control set to Automatic, Desktop Curtain will display its curtain in Mission Control, just like it were any other window.
If set to Hide, then the Desktop Curtain window won't appear in Mission Control. If set to Behave as a normal window—which is only available when the Curtain Level is set to "Cover items on the Desktop"—then Desktop Curtain's curtain will appear as a window in Mission Control.
Advanced Settings
The Advanced tab holds settings that you may find useful, particularly if you use Desktop Curtain regularly.
Toggle curtain visibility with hot key: Use this box to assign a global hot key to show and hide Desktop Curtain. With a hot key set, a clutter-free desktop is only a keyboard shortcut away.
You can't (and shouldn't!) use Command-Tab here, but most any other shortcut will work, including common ones such as Command-W and Command-Q—but you probably shouldn't use those, either. Instead, choose something unlikely to be used in other programs, such as Shift-Control-R or similar. By default, no hot key is assigned.
Isolate frontmost window: Assign a hot key here, and you can use Desktop Curtain to focus all your attention on just one window. Bring that window to the foreground, press the assigned hot key, and that window (along with any palettes used by the application) will be the only thing showing in front of the curtain.
This isn't a toggle key—it simply isolates the currently-frontmost window, and can be used whenever you want to view the frontmost window all by itself.
Boss key: When set, this hot key will toggle Desktop Curtain to sit in front of nearly everything, including your Dock, desktop icons, and all open application windows. It will even cover Many Tricks' own Witch window switcher (though not the Command-Tab switcher).
So how do you get out of boss mode? Just press the hot key again, or (if running in menu bar mode), select Hide from the Desktop Curtain menu. You can also Control-click on the curtain image and use the contextual menu.
The only thing not covered when using boss mode is the Dashboard in older versions of Mac OS X—if you have it open when you invoke boss mode, any open widgets will float above the curtain.
Launch automatically at login: When checked, Desktop Curtain will be installed as a login item, and will launch each time you login. This is disabled by default.
Show curtain on launch: When checked, the curtain will be displayed when you launch Desktop Curtain. This is enabled by default. If you'd like to run Desktop Curtain at login, but not have its curtain immediately visible, uncheck this box.
Show settings on launch: Determines whether the Settings window appears when Desktop Curtain launches. Uncheck this box, and you won't see its Settings window on each launch. This is enabled by default.
The Run as button controls how Desktop Curtain operates. The app is really something of a chameleon—it can run in any of three different modes. When you click the button, the pop-up menu at right will appear; simply choose which one its three modes you'd like to use.
When run as a standard application, Desktop Curtain will have a Dock icon, and its settings panel will appear whenever you use Command-Tab to select Desktop Curtain, or you click on its icon in the Dock. This is the default mode.
If you right- or Control-click on Desktop Curtain's Dock icon, you can use this convenient pop-up menu to set the curtain level, isolate the frontmost window, hide the curtain, and more:
When run as a menu bar application, you'll see Desktop Curtain's icon in your menu bar. Click the Desktop Curtain icon in the menu bar to see the menu that provides access to Desktop Curtain's features, including modifying its settings:
This menu will also appear when you Control-click on the curtain itself, giving you a fast way to access all of Desktop Curtain's features.
The choices in the menu are relatively self-explanatory, but here's a brief overview. Hide Curtain hides the curtain. The Curtain level section lets you change the level at which the curtain resides (see above for details).
Settings opens the Settings window; select About Desktop Curtain to see its About box; select News to see any relevant news updates regarding the app (App Store version only); Help opens this help file; and Quit quits Desktop Curtain.
When run in menu bar mode, you can choose from a number of icon options by using the icon choice pop-up menu that appears:
The default icon (the empty square) is Desktop Curtain's "live" icon: its appearance will change to match your chosen image and color (for translucent images). As seen in the image at right, there are seven additional icons: four Desktop Curtain 3 icons, and the original three icons from the prior version.
When run as a faceless application, there will be absolutely no indication that Desktop Curtain is running—no Dock icon, no menu bar icon, just your chosen image or color. How do you interact with Desktop Curtain when it's seemingly invisible?
If you have the Curtain Level set to either Cover items on the Desktop or Apply normal window ordering, you can Control-click on your chosen image or color, and a contextual menu will appear—it's the same menu you see (shown above) when running as a menu bar application.
If you're using the Behind items on the Desktop Curtain Level, you'll need to double-click Desktop Curtain's application icon in Finder to reopen the settings panel.
Tips on Using Help
Our help system is designed to be easy to use. The top area of the window contains page navigation buttons on the left, and a magnifying glass icon (that will open a search box) on the right. If you find the font size too small, you can increase it by pressing ⌘=; ⌘- will reduce the size.
We use some standard conventions for certain bits of text throughout our help system:
These sections of text contain additional explanatory material that's related to the topic being discussed, but may go into more detail or not quite fit in the regular flow, so we set it apart with a visual call-out.
These sections of text contain tips, shortcuts, hidden features, or other similar "goodies" to help you get the most out of the app.
This is text we really want you to read—generally, something that's very important relative to your use of the app. If you're just skimming the help files, don't skim these notes—please read them.
When we reference items in the menu, we highlight each menu item's name, and separate them with an arrow, like this:
→ →When we reference a setting in Settings, it'll be called out like this: A user-settable setting
Keys you type are called out: ⌘⌃4
Get More Help
If this help isn't enough, and you need additional assistance with Desktop Curtain, you can reach out to us via our other channels. Use our support page to open a trouble ticket or email us directly, and you can often find us on our Discord channel.
You might also find answers to your Moom questions on the Desktop Curtain FAQ page.